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US 8,787,056 B2Granted
Electric power converter apparatus enabling reduction of temperature differences among a plurality of semiconductor modules of the apparatus
AssigneeDenso Corporation
InventorYuu Yamahira
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An electric power converter apparatus includes a plurality of semiconductor modules connected in parallel, with respective current-carrying electrode terminals of the modules being connected to a common branch point via connecting leads having respectively different values of impedance, such that the impedance values decrease in accordance with increased degrees of effectiveness of cooling the respective semiconductor modules, thereby reducing variations in operating temperature between the modules.
Claims4
An electrical power converter apparatus comprising:
- a plurality of semiconductor modules connected in parallel with one another,
- a plurality of branch conductors having a branch connection point in common, each of said branch conductors extending between said branch connection point and an electrode terminal of a corresponding one of said plurality of semiconductor modules, each of said semiconductor modules having a known corresponding value of thermal resistance;
- and
- a cooling apparatus for cooling opposing sides of each of said semiconductor modules;
- wherein:
- each of said branch conductors is configured with a specific value of impedance, and wherein said specific value of impedance is increased in accordance with increase of said value of thermal resistance of said corresponding semiconductor module;
- cooling tubes of said cooling apparatus are alternately stacked with said semiconductor modules;
- and
- said plurality of semiconductor modules are stacked as an elongated array, said array extending between a first end and a second end thereof, and wherein a branch conductor connected to a semiconductor modules located at a predetermined one of said first end and said second end is configured to have a lower value of impedance than each of respective branch conductors connected to semiconductor modules located at positions other than said predetermined one of the first end and second end of said elongated array.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.